ESPN.com's free Capital One Bowl Mania game will be familiar to those who have played College Pick 'Em. The principle is the same: Pick the winner of each game, then rank the games in the order of your confidence in those picks. The twist, of course, is that Bowl Mania requires you to rank 40 games in order of confidence rather than the usual 10. There is also a straight scoring option in which each game counts the same.
You'll always be able to access your entry from the drop-down menu under the fantasy tab on the ESPN.com front page. Play against others from around the country or create your own private group to compete against your friends. The bowl season kicks off with five games on Saturday, Dec. 19.
Handicapping bowl games can be both easier and trickier than regular-season games. Each team is a known commodity with a full season's body of work to dissect. However, the true stakes of each contest are not always readily apparent.
College football is unique in that teams compete for something other than the sport's overall championship during the postseason. That "something" is different from bowl to bowl, and each game's prize is not always valued equally by the contestants. The college football postseason presents the only scenarios in major sports in which one team that views a game as a meaningless exhibition might be pitted against another team that views it as a championship-type opportunity.
If you understand what the game means to each team, and which teams are highly motivated to prepare and play their best, you'll be well on your way to Bowl Mania success. You'll then know which teams will likely play better or worse than their usual performance baseline, which is the hard part.
But first you must establish that baseline. To decipher which team has the overall advantage, you'll need a comprehensive approach. Consider each team's credentials independently, and then break down the matchup. Finally, put that information in the context of all the game's intangibles. Here's how to do that, in five steps:
1. Know the Foes: Curriculum vitae
Explore what each team brings to the table offensively and defensively and determine the relative strength of each team in a vacuum. Carefully examine each team's body of work during the season; does the team have quality wins, or has its winning record been compiled against a soft non-conference schedule and the bottom half of its league? Has the team dominated in its wins, or has it scraped by on turnovers and timely plays despite being consistently outgained? How is the team's success predicated, and is that success sustainable?
Schedule strength is paramount. With 80 schools earning postseason bids, many teams will be below average in several areas. Always consider the strength of each team's conference, and try to separate the legitimate bowl-caliber squads from the schools that earned bids simply because of the glut of postseason opportunities (40 bowl games this season).
When checking each team's résumé, don't forget about recent form. If a team's performance down the stretch in November was much stronger or weaker than earlier in the season, try to identify factors such as injuries, fatigue or the emergence of new playmakers that could be reasons behind the winning or losing streak. Arkansas finished the regular season just 6-6 last season but rallied to bowl eligibility with late-season wins over LSU and Ole Miss. The Razorbacks played their best football near the end of the regular season and carried that momentum into a postseason throttling of Texas.
2. Match 'em up: Strengths and weaknesses
Once you have a solid grasp on each team's overall qualifications, it's time to analyze the matchups. Generally, you want your prospective pick's offensive strength matched against the other team's defensive weakness. Conversely, your side's defensive weakness should ideally be matched against the opponent's offensive weakness. If your pick is a team that has a strong rushing attack, you'd like to see a matchup with a team that has trouble stopping the ground game.
From a defensive perspective, however, you want the matchup to pit strength against strength and weakness against weakness. If your pick features a run-stuffing defense that's vulnerable against the pass, like Louisville or Toledo, you'd prefer to face a running team with an anemic passing attack. The fundamental question you'd like to ask -- and answer -- is: What is each team going to try to do offensively, and will the other team be able to prevent it?
There is little parity in college sports as compared with the professional side. Personnel mismatches, such as small versus large and fast versus slow, are regular occurrences. If a team with an offensive line that averages more than 300 pounds per man is matched up against a smallish defensive front, it creates a potential mismatch. A physical wide receiving corps with great height can be a nightmare for a team that has smaller, shorter cornerbacks. Be sure to recognize when teams are stepping up in class and uncover any potentially dominating matchups that might give one side control of the game.
3. Fine tuning: Look for hidden edges
Apart from the fundamental offensive and defensive stats that you'll use, there are plenty of other indicators that can be useful clues.
Special teams: The oft under-handicapped special teams units win their share of bowl games. Does either team have a dynamic return man? Does either team struggle in kick coverage? How are the kickers?
Using national rankings rather than raw statistics can help you uncover special-teams mismatches. It might not seem that instructive to know that one team averages 25.7 yards per kickoff return, but if you know that 25.7 is good for sixth in the nation while the opponent ranks 112th in kick return defense, then you're on to something.
Comparing kickoff returns versus kickoff return defense and net punting versus punt returns for both sides of each game will yield some interesting finds.
Turnovers: Don't just look at turnover margin. Instead, use national rankings for takeaways and turnovers lost. That lets you know specifically which offenses turn the ball over and which defenses garner takeaways.
Penalties: Again, use national rankings to find heavily or lightly penalized teams.
Coaching: Coaching is a dominating factor in every matchup, but the bowls bring unique challenges. Get behind proven bowl performers such as Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and Nebraska's Mike Riley, while avoiding newbies to the postseason scene. Also be aware of which coaches (and staffs) are distracted by the prospect of changing jobs.
Health: Which teams benefited from the rest and are now fresh and healed up? Is either team getting important contributors back from injury? Is either squad now missing the playmakers that keyed their earlier wins? Don't forget to monitor the inevitable academic suspensions that are handed out during final exams.
Venue: Will there be a partisan crowd? Is either team familiar with the bowl site, as a Sun Belt team playing in the Mobile Bowl or a Mountain West team playing in the New Mexico Bowl might be? Think about how each team will react to playing in the atmosphere that each particular bowl will create.
4. Understand the stakes: See the prize through the players' eyes
Often the most important knowledge is an understanding of which team is more motivated to win. The simplest method for estimating each team's level of desire is to answer the question of whether the team's postseason destination meets its goals for the season. If so, the players are apt to be excited about being invited to that particular bowl and consequently will be more focused in preparation and will likely play well. If the bowl berth is a disappointment and doesn't meet the team's preseason aspirations, the players will be less excited about the opportunity in front of them and will be more likely to turn in a sloppy performance on the practice field, in the film room and during the game.
Sometimes these answers are fairly obvious. If the preseason No. 1 team struggled to an 8-4 record and landed in the Fram Oil Filter Bowl in Fargo, North Dakota, those guys are not thrilled about being there. If the other team hasn't been to a bowl in 40 years, then yes, it's excited about the opportunity, even in frigid Fargo. Oklahoma entered 2014 with a lot of hype coming off a big Sugar Bowl win over Alabama, but the Sooners struggled to an 8-4 mark and landed in a second-tier Dec. 29 bowl. The overall disappointment with the season showed in a disinterested blowout loss to Clemson. Big Ten and SEC powers accustomed to spending the postseason in Florida typically aren't excited about bowls in Shreveport or Detroit, while a perennial MAC doormat would be pretty fired up about any invitation, even to the GoDaddy bowl.
Even that determination is just part of the equation, though. You must establish what the opportunity to make the trip and play the game actually represents to each team. Some teams are excited and just happy to be there, especially those with a lot of players making their first bowl trip. Other teams, especially those who have been to a bowl or two recently without winning one, will be focused specifically on winning the game, not merely playing in it. UTEP's invitation to the New Mexico Bowl last season was the program's first since 2010. The Miners, however, couldn't match a Utah State squad that is more accustomed to bowl appearances, losing 21-6 to the Aggies. Meanwhile, Arkansas State probably had a hard time getting fired up about heading to the GoDaddy Bowl four straight seasons from 2011-14.
Teams looking to make a statement in a bowl game are extremely dangerous, as are teams seeking redemption, atonement or respect. Listen to the comments of the coaches and players, and look for clues regarding the quality of the team's preparation. Distractions can be fatal, and they come in many flavors. Final exams interfere with some teams' preparation more than others. Weather isn't usually a problem at the bowl sites, but it can affect both travel and preparation beforehand, especially for teams without indoor practice facilities. If players are sent home from the bowl site for violating curfew, that's a clue that the team may not be completely focused on the task at hand.
Once you've assessed all the intangibles and gained some insight into whether each team is likely to play at, above or below its usual performance baseline, you're ready to finalize your picks.
5. Final analysis: The big picture
Once you've gathered all the information you can, put it all together by making the case for each team. Handicapping is often called an accumulation of edges, and actually taking time to list a few key advantages that you've detected for each team will improve your Bowl Mania results. This recap of evidence will help you realize where you really stand in terms of confidence. Games in which you have strong faith in your assessment of both sides will usually be better picks than games in which you have a solid read on one team but are a little in the dark about the other.
Finally, whether you've studied the bowl landscape a lot or a little, don't underestimate the value of an unrushed time to actually make the final decisions. Review the evidence that each of your picks is both ready and able to meet its postseason challenge, give yourself ample time to assess your true confidence level and then rank accordingly.